In the last month or so, I’ve became more and more aware of a genre of digital music – “hybrid orchestral,” also called “epic music.” This came out of my using movie soundtracks as background music for my writing times. I wanted more than what was available, and began poking around YouTube.

Most of the recordings are compilations from cinematic score composers who put together literally mountains of orchestral tracks for use in the gaming and movie/TV industries. A great upcoming example is the Trailer 2 for the 2017 movie “Wonder Woman” featuring a great track “Catapult” by Position Music.

Other composers are looking to create a piece of electronic (hence the “hybrid”) orchestral music that has a message/story all it’s own, rather than something created for a movie studio to incorporate into a soundtrack. The example above, Tales of the Forgotten “GRound Zero is part of an outstanding hybrid orchestral trilogy of EP-length pieces, concluding with this also-excellent “Ep III: Devolution“. Another favorite of mine is a composer known as Varien – love The Valkyrie Trilogy:

After awhile I do admit to growing weary of the genre, and will segue into worship music or my short list of all-time favorites such as Acoustic Alchemy. But, these days orchestral tunes keep drawing me back every few weeks as I am pondering a new chapter of a character’s life… Here’s another post I wrote about music to write by. Enjoy!